Ben MacLeod 馬志斌

I bothered Halifax council about the same issue for the third year in a row. Thank you Terri for live-posting through a very long meeting! Here are my remarks from this afternoon:

i should make an effort to meet more of my favourite candidates. it seems to help them win!

Complex industrial firefighting at Hfx Grain Elevator. The fire is located about 135 feet above ground within the facility’s dust management system, presenting significant access and tactical considerations. Crew are operating deliberately and aggressively, supported by aerial and drone operations.

Look who we ran into in North York 🤩

Field trip to Markham, suburban Ontario outpost of Hong Kong culture

Council will review an "Alternatives for 2028/29 and 2029/30 AAA Bicycle Network Capital Projects" at the Regional Council meeting on Tuesday. Review the segments up for route changes and no longer all ages and abilities, contact your Councillor. pub-halifax.escribemeetings.com/filestream.a...

THERE IS VIDEO. IT IS NUTS. The way Everwind treated those two reporters is the way they’ll treat our whole province.

This is the best kind of work that Auditors-General do. Were NS to take seriously a "value for money" standard in road maintenance, it would overturn the practice of most of our two-centuries+ Data!

Maybe we have too many cops

HCC is collecting info in a survey about the MacDonald Bridge bikeway. This is to bolster our arguments to the Transportation Standing Committee on Oct 22. Whether you use the bridge bikeway or not, we’d like to hear from you, #bikehfx. Please share widely. forms.gle/QbDTTYuWEirt...

In Toronto again, having a lovely time here as usual 🏙️

I just got off the phone with both Jennifer and Joan. They're rattled but otherwise OK. They'll have a full report as soon as they can write it up. Adding: I take this extremely seriously and unequivocally support our reporters. I'll be filing complaints with Houston and others.

G20 levels of police presence to remove a fucking bike lane. Absolute cowards. (Photo: @chanface.bsky.social)

New sidewalks and mid-block pedestrian crossing on Lakelands Boulevard (Bayers Lake, Halifax)

"Young people now were sold a dream that if they worked hard they could get ahead, however, the goal posts were always changing [...] Now, those same young people can’t afford new homes, thanks in part to the CAP."

Traffic Safety Act Regulations Released news.novascotia.ca/en/2026/10/0...

"research shows that most children are not developmentally equipped to safely navigate traffic environments designed around moving automobiles quickly and efficiently. Yet we routinely build communities around this priority, leaving children dependent on adults for their mobility"

this is what "Haligonians like to park out front" actually looks like

breachmedia.ca/im-familiar-...

"People can just work harder to provide me with subsidies" is... a take.

laurawhite.ca/nova-scotia-...

Municipal staff: When capped properties pay less, others must pay more. "Because HRM must raise a fixed amount of revenue each year, any reduction in taxes paid by capped properties must be made up by the rest of the residential tax base."

This old road concept was premised on the military disposing of land at Shearwater, which they ended up holding onto. It is disappointing to hear it is still being considered but it does dovetail with Tim Houston's plan for car-centric sprawl around the Shearwater Flyer trail.

‘We need real leadership. People are dying, people are getting hurt’: Transportation committee hears pleas for safer roads Story by me www.halifaxexaminer.ca/government/c...

Jeebus. We’ve learned nothing. A pox on the head of Dr. Strang and his associates.

"We’ve come 4,000 kilometres. Many of us have been sounding the alarm on climate change for 20 to 30 years, and we feel like we’re running out of time. So, we will be persistent, we will not be violent, but we aren’t going to turn around and go home easily."

Sad to have had to miss Kidical Mass in my neighbourhood this morning!

Clean Air Library HRM, Protect Our Province Nova Scotia, and Halifax Mask Bloc have a table at the Anarchist Book Fair this afternoon! Old library on Spring Garden, until 6 pm. @popns.bsky.social @calhrm.bsky.social

The Quinpool Centre puddle is deserving of heritage status at this point. I swear the landlord could redevelop the entire property and they would find a way to keep the puddle

an absolutely delightful week in and around halifax. like, "i got to pitch my map to a transit agency" delightful (outcome pending). i certainly won't go another 18 years without seeing the north atlantic. many thanks to @benmacleod.bsky.social for taking the time to show august and me around!

halifax's waterfront is pretty impressive. it's continuous, well-lit, integrated with downtown, has some art, ample individual and group seating, and retail directly on the space. the level of activity at 9pm is testament to the success of its design. people love to hang out here

i like that halifax route 1 is sooo frequent at night (every 10 to 15 min until 1am). in a sea of infrequent late night buses in halifax, the 1 feels like a lifeline to avoid long, lonely waits that would otherwise turn me off from staying out late, or using transit at night altogether

When I first arrived in NS, the public conversation was all about the Ivany Report, and its findings on why young people and immigrants were fleeing the province. Since then, NS has never stopped telling young people and immigrants that they're nothing but ATMs to be used by old white people.

My city has designed its property tax regime to tax younger people and recent immigrants at higher rates than older people and long-time (disproportionately white) residents. This is a genuinely villainous policy.

I would love to know the transportation modal split of Citadel students compared with those at new schools in suburban Halifax. Most classmates I knew just walked, some took the bus, because the surrounding land use looks like this: